Quickening of a New Power! Put to the Test!
:This chapter will not begin until tomorrow, May 16th, in order to work on Minato's new powers attained through the two year timeskip. Please be patient as things are settled. --Silver-Haired Seireitou 22:21, May 15, 2012 (UTC) Sparring with the Seijin The Seijin Temple was far busier at noontime than during the morning. As Minato walked along the pathway, Seijin of Master, Apprentice, and Initiate ranks alike were scattered across the temple's land. Each were either in cliques of their friends, speaking with their Masters, or just enjoying the sunny day that followed after the rain yesterday. "Minato!" called out a girl with long pink braids, running toward him as she caught her breath. "How are you?" she asked, regaining her composure. Minato chuckled softly, "Hey Sara, what's up?" "Nothing much really." she replied. Sara Miyake was one of the Seijin Masters of the temple, although one could not tell from her personality and young appearance. "Good afternoon, Minato." spoke a man with spiky black hair. Minato smiled softly, "You too, Yamato-san." he replied. Sara then spoke up. "Oh, Minato. You better hurry. Sorata-sempai was waiting for you." Minato nodded quickly, and took his leave after bowing to the both of them out of respect. Quickly after that, he began his quick jog down the pathway for the training dōjō hall. Minato vs Satoshi: Round One Minato soon arrived to the dōjō where Satoshi and Sorata were awaiting him. "Hey, idiot. You're late!" dished out Satoshi, who was obviously annoyed. Behind these two, stood a man with spiky red hair and another man with dark spiky hair. "I agree with Satoshi, Minato. You are a Seijin now, you should pay more attention to your timing." spoke the red-haired man. Minato sighed, rubbing the side of his head as he nodded. "Yeah... you're right, Koga-san. It's good to see you as well, Ichirō-san." he replied, but then eyed Satoshi. "I can't say the same for you." Satoshi's forehead reflected his vein popping out. "Listen here!" he yelled, his forehead immediately laying against Minato's. Sorata, however, intervened. "Alright you two, enough." he spoke, as Satoshi sighed, backing away. "Yes sir..." he spoke, obviously annoyed. Sorata then walked to the center of the dōjō, where Minato and Satoshi followed, facing eachother down on opposite sides. Koga and Ichirō stood a ways off, using their telepathy to debate on who would win this spar. Sorata held his hand out. "This will be a two-point spar. All techniques are allowed, but fatal potential attacks will result in a warning and then a loss of a point." He then swung his hand down. "Begin!" Satoshi was the first to move. He drew his sword in an instant and dashed toward Minato with his Zanpakutō in hand. However, this was but a feint. Disappearing with an instant flash step, Satoshi then appeared to Minato's right side, swinging the sword upwards for the latter's neck. "Number Seven... Tsubame Gaeshi!" Minato quickly reacted, jumping his body upwards and back, forming a somersault in the air as he landed about a meter away from Satoshi. In the midst of this jump, he formed a spirit sword of blue energy to his hands. With an almost immediate thrust of the sword, he yelled out. "Getsuga Tenshō!" Immediately, a burst of light purple energy escaped from the tip of the blue blade, aiming to crash right into the young Seijin. But Satoshi was expecting this. After training with Minato for so long, he could almost predict every single one of his movements. "Shunkuri!" he shouted in response. Suddenly, a carmine-colored shield appeared in front of his person, blocking the force of Minato's attack. However, Minato wasn't finished. With a sudden move, Minato appeared behind Satoshi, sneaking up on the Shunpo master. "Getsuga..." he began, forming energy at his sword. Satoshi was ready for this, however. He slammed his blade down on Minato's energy sword, and forced the energy that was being gathered to explode, right then and there. The explosion caused the wooden floor of the dōjō to break apart, revealing the grassy ground as the entire hall was filled with dust and smoke. However, Satoshi was no fool. He knew exactly where Minato was. And his blade did too. With an instant flash step, Satoshi flashed forward and appeared in front of Minato's being. "Game over." he stated, swinging his blade down on Minato. But the blade was met with resistance, a large hand formed from energy appeared to be its resistor. The arm had appeared from Minato's back, while Minato's hands gripped the handle of his aforementioned energy blade. Satoshi's eyes widened immediately in surprise. "Gotcha!" he stated, and swung his blade upwards, cutting Satoshi across the stomach as the latter flashed back. The dust began to fade away slowly, as Sorata could be seen with his hand up. "First point, Minato!" Round Two: 1 - 0 Satoshi's eyes narrowed in annoyance. He wasn't expecting this, for Minato to have gained so much skill in the middle of their fight, and be capable of reading the movements of a skilled fighter like himself so... so effortlessly. Minato couldn't help but grin slightly. "My point, Satoshi." Satoshi's annoyance grew. "Don't get cocky." "Begin!" yelled Sorata. "Wait, wha-?!" immediately answered Minato. "Too slow!" Satoshi called out, firing a red blast of energy from his palm, immediately exploding into the young man's body. The smoke from the attack made it difficult to see, but as luck would have it, as the smoke began clearing, Minato had blocked it with a bright blue energy sword held by his right hand. "Geez... if it wasn't for Zukōseki, I'd be out cold..." But then, the blade began to glow bright red as he smiled, much to Satoshi's surprise. "Here's something I was saving... just for this fight!" he stated, holding the blade in front of him. "Wanashō... Shakkahō!" he called out, aiming the blade for Satoshi as he fired out an even bigger ball of flames from the tip of the blade. An immense explosion than occurred with the impact of the attack, as Minato could only smile at the devastation. "Wanashō is a technique I developed under Master Seireitou... but I perfected it just recently. It absorbs the opponent's energy attack and fires it back at him, three times stronger." he explained, dispelling Zukōseki from his hands. Minato looked over to Sorata. "Sensei, that's two points, I win. Right?" "I told you... don't get cocky." Minato's eyes widened instantly, as Satoshi appeared behind him. Satoshi swung his blade down, cutting Minato across the back enough to draw blood. Minato flashed himself forward, gritting his teeth in pain. Satoshi's body was then visible, as was his smirk. Sorata's hand went up. "One point, Satoshi-kun." Satoshi then walked over to Minato. "I told you, not to get cocky. You hadn't noticed it then, but when you fired the attack, it hit my defensive spell." he stated, pointing over to where Minato had fired his attack, revealing a slightly-cracked mirror wall of energy as it then shattered. "Once the explosion occurred, you believed you won. I used that chance to flash behind you when you dispelled your weapon, and then... Bam." he stated, his grin still etched on his face. Minato would almost snarl in annoyance. His mentor always yelled at him for being cocky and not paying attention for a counterattack. It truly was his error for not paying attention. It was a tie, meaning Minato and Satoshi each needed one more point to win. However... Sorata then stepped up. "Alright, good job guys. I'd love to continue watching, but it appears I've been summoned for a meeting. In addition..." he turned his head, eyeing all of the destruction Minato and Satoshi's battle had inflicted on the dōjō. "You both have to clean up this mess you made." Minato and Satoshi's faces quickly soured in dissension, noting how many hours it'd take to clean up all of this. Sorata and the other two Seijin took their leave, leaving the mess to the two rivals. The two sighed in unison, and went off in different directions to take care of different messes. ~ Outside of the Temple of the Seijin, however, lurked a mystery. Several men shrouded in dark cloaks were scurrying about the perimeter of the temple. However, there stood one man who wasn't wearing any form of black clothing as the others were, signifying some leadership among these mysterious trespassers. "You remember the plan, right?" the leader spoke. Several of the men nodded silently, as they disappeared with instant quiet flashes of movement. Sorata, now walking alone, went down the pathway to the Council meeting room. Unbeknownst to him, several of these mysterious men were tailing him from the building above. Outside several buildings scattered around the Seijin Temple, quietly and swiftly, there were these men, waiting at the windows as they eyed any and all Seijin that were wearing brown cloaks, signifying master status. Several men stood outside the temple still, standing in a line facing the wall of the temple. The leader stood in the middle of this line, watching the wall of the temple as each of the men standing in this line focused an amount of energy at their hands, forming what appeared to be spirit bows and arrows, aiming each of their arrows at the sky, awaiting the command to fire. And it soon came. "Begin." ~END~ :Next Chapter: Darkness Approaches